BBSRC Institute Strategic Programme: Building Robustness in Crops (BRIC) Partner Grant

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Climate change is challenging crop production and our ability to produce enough high-quality food to feed a growing population. Most modern crop varieties have not been bred to withstand and produce reliably under variable or extreme climatic conditions. As agricultural systems progress towards net-zero by 2050 we need to develop crops that are not only resilient to climate perturbations producing high yields on reduced area of land but that have the developmental robustness to withstand pests and disease whilst providing us with sustainable, healthy food, with reduced dependence upon agrochemical inputs. The aim of the Building Robustness in Crops ISP is to deliver genetic diversity and knowledge, innovative technologies and training to allow robust high-yielding crops to be developed with a better understanding of the agronomic practices required for sustainable production with minimum inputs. Our research programme has been developed through consultation with industry to identify key problems and challenges. We will use an interdisciplinary approach combining our research expertise in genetics/genomics with computational biology, modelling and imaging and we will engage with social scientists and climate scientists through the Norwich Institute for Sustainable Development to enhance the breadth of our expertise. These approaches will enable us to deliver models for crop breeding that predict the effects of genes on morphology and enable a targeted approach to crop modification for traits such as fertility, vigour, chilling tolerance, winter hardiness, pollinator attraction, drought tolerance and herbivore resistance. We will work with the plant breeding industry, growers, policy makers and broader stakeholder groups to ensure that the knowledge we produce will drive development and improvements across the sector.We will build resources and technologies for both UK and global crop improvement. We will develop and grow genetic diversity panels in oilseed rape and pea to identify beneficial traits which can be incorporated in future crop varieties. The field-grown resources that we deliver with our collaborators and partners will be a community resource that can be used by other research institutions and industry. This will allow exploitation of accompanying genetic resources for incorporation of novel breeding targets such as improved flowering time, yield, architecture, quality, and disease resistance enabling UK breeding programmes to develop robust new varieties.We will improve our world-leading genome editing capabilities in Brassica and pea crops enhancing transformation efficiencies and regeneration of tissue. Improved capability will allow us to engineer more complex pathways of genes within crop plants and allow faster progress to be made in developing crops that can then be tested in the field.Using Brassica and pea, as well as wheat and model species, we will investigate the mechanisms by which genes control and regulate plant traits and the influence environmental factors such as temperature have on these regulatory mechanisms. This will inform development of our genome editing protocols and the genetics needed for plants to withstand fluctuating environmental conditions.An Institute Strategic Programme provides an outstanding opportunity to align a large group of expert investigators, each with specialist skills but all working towards a common goal to tackle some of societies greatest challenges. We will build on previous BBSRC investment in both people and resources, using the state-of-the-art equipment and technology available to us. We will work with collaborators and partners at other BBSRC institutes, NIAB, universities and in industry, combining our expertise and pooling our resources to undertake exciting experimental designs that are only now becoming feasible.